luminousone

Since you are so practiced, you could probably do it with your eyes closed now. I didn’t think I would need the battery pack - my car is only 4 years old. Sigh. Probably a defective battery or alternator. Anyhow, the battery pack would also be useful in an emergency or power outage, because it can power up other things too.

I ordered a battery pack jump starter- that should take care of it next time. I was able to hook my battery up to the charger overnight, so I did make it to my dr appointment the next day. CT is rescheduled for next week. My dr was all excited about the battery jumper, haha. I think he is into cars, and I guess he carries one in his car. His nurse said she had to use it once, so staff members have also benefited too. I asked doc about the vaccine and he thinks it will be a while before it gets to my group. They will let me know. My book group is strangely meeting in a few minutes. None of us had plans to go anywhere for New Year’s. That is a good thing this year with COVID! Friends are beginning to ask for prayers for their family members that have COVID now. In different parts of the country. Rural and urban areas. I’m staying home! Happy New Year everyone! Here is to a healthy, happy, peaceful, normal year ahead!!!

Gorgeous work!

I was supposed to go in for a CT scan this morning. It was a fasting one, so I dutifully did the fast. And then went out to the garage but- my car wouldn’t start! So I had to cancel my appointment, because by the time a truck would get here to jump my car, I would have missed the appointment. Ugh. I do have a battery charger hooked up to it now, so hopefully my car will start tomorrow morning, as I have a dr appointment tomorrow. The CT got rescheduled for next week. I need to order a car jump battery pack. Then I could have gotten to my appointment. And back. And at some point I need to get my car to the dealer for an oil change and recall work, so they can check my battery then... It was super cold this morning (for here) with pretty frost all over the plants in my yard.

Thinking of you Bolt!

Had a quiet but good Christmas yesterday. Just did things in my own pace all morning - got up late, vacuumed, read, delivered chocolates to my neighbors, and then Zoomed with family for Christmas. it was great to see my boys together on the Zoom. Then a few other family members joined us too. It was low key, but nice. Talked with a few friends today to catch up, so that was fun. I’ve been hearing about the vaccine - I figured as a cancer patient (over age 60) that I might qualify for the vaccine fairly soon. But now it looks like it may be offered to educators first. Either way, I might be up for the vaccine in a few months. I have a dr appointment next week, so I’ll ask my dr if he wants me to get it, if offered soon. My guess is - yes. But since I am on chemo meds, I need to check with him. it would take a while for the immunity to develop. First dose of the shot, then the booster a few weeks later, then the immune response is more developed in a few weeks after that. So it is a 6 week process. And important to note that kids under 16 cannot receive the vaccine, and also - you can still get a mild case of COVID after the vaccine. And you can likely then give it to someone else. My guess is that schools will still need to be hybrid for a while. But maybe I can be there in person in the Fall. (However, they will have to find me a spot though - they turned my office into the isolation room...) Schools in our area are all online, but I am betting they choose to go hybrid this Spring. We shall see.

Oh my goodness- My youngest son dropped by to bring gifts and to pick things up. We wore masks, but he did come inside. He needed to gather things from his room. (He has been staying at his dad’s during COVID). Anyhow, he left a gift that is joint from both of my sons. Which I will open tomorrow. My in-laws usually celebrate Christmas on Xmas eve - my ex’s grandpa was a pastor, and so this became their tradition. So my son stopped by briefly before going off to that celebration, and I will Zoom with both sons tomorrow. However, I was just picking up after he left, and I noticed that my ex husband’s partner had sent along a gift for me! I peeked in the bag, and she had chosen very thoughtful gifts for me! (Better than my ex ever would have chosen). She is so thoughtful! I did not buy them any gifts this year. I never have. It is just weird. But she really put thought into the gift. If she were not with my ex, we would probably be friends. On a different note, I just Zoomed with my siblings and their adult kids. So fun - we are in states from coast to coast! It was my niece’s birthday today and my sister’s tomorrow, so lots to celebrate. Merry Christmas everyone.

Good point, Jib! There are a few things at play here: I have ADD so I have to intentionally organize my life and schedule I am still under treatment for cancer (I’ll talk more about that in a bit) It has been rainy and cloudy and dark and dreary here. So - to address the above: cleaning the bathrooms is tops on my list. Having a list is very helpful for me. These are things that need to be done, and have been done quickly or not at all through the past few months. Because I have been sick and all my energy was going to my job and to getting well. I have been ill since January. First with a profound virus. Then stumpy for a few weeks, then another profound virus where I couldn’t eat for 9 days. Then, a week later they figured out my cancer had returned, and quickly put me on chemo meds. Which meant I still could not eat very much. Thankfully I have had a lot of “cushion” so losing 60 lbs was not a bad thing, necessarily. But I’ve been sick. At times, it took all my energy just to get to the bathroom and back. So let us just say that I have sooo much cleaning to catch up on. I did what I could, when I could. (Thank goodness for disinfecting wipes and Swiffer mops!) I couldn’t hire anyone to come in, because - COVID. However, my doc and I think I have had a low grade infection since January, independent of the cancer. After a third antibiotic (or maybe 4th?) my temperature is in normal range! It was running 99.4 since January! So, I am feeling ever so much better! Not 100% yet, but sooo much better. So it was nice to dig in today, to see what I could do. I didn’t do the bathrooms last night. I went to bed early instead. But this morning, the sun broke out for a bit - and it occurred to me that part of my lethargy had to do with the dark, dreary, days. I perked up a bit, and dug in for a deep cleaning. I actually listened to Heather Cox Richardson with her take on political history and what is happening now in the US, so that kept me occupied while I did the cleaning. So - I got one bathroom done! I scrubbed out the trash can, really scrubbed the baseboards, etc. I’ll do the other bathroom tomorrow. Or the next day. The last time I scrubbed the bathrooms down like this was early January, just before my son and his girlfriend flew into town for a visit from the Bay Area. And I got sick 3 days later... So much has happened since then!

When my youngest son was two weeks overdue (and 9 1/2 lbs), they scheduled me to go in to be induced. We were to report at midnight. My parents had flown in to stay with our oldest while we were at the hospital. They stayed in our daylight basement and we had put a kitchenette in there and had rented the space out (before kids). My mom decided to do some cooking and being impetuous as she is, she stuffed cauliflower leaves in the garbage disposal. And plugged the drain. My husband tried valiantly to unblock it. Unfortunately our drain snake was 2 hours away - his sister had borrowed it. He had some water blaster thing that was supposed to unblock drains, so he tried that. He was up on the roof with the hose water blaster thing threaded through the vent pipe trying to unblock the drain. It was pouring down rain, and 10 at night. Unfortunately it didn’t work and we had to get ready for the hospital. He instructed my parents to call Roto-rooter or a similar service the next day. Of course my parents called a plumber, who charged us way more, so my husband really grumbled about that when he got the bill. Anyway, we did go in at midnight for me to be induced - they got us in the room and decided to induce at 8 am. But I went into labor on my own at 2 am, so that worked out. He was a cute baby who is nearly 21 now. As I said. Blockages happen. And often at inconvenient times...

Haha, yeah... We had high class tenants...

Well. I started Winter break on Friday night, and took the day on Saturday to be lazy and recuperate. Yesterday I also didn’t do much - watched church online, and did a few loads of laundry. My plan was to knock off some projects/cleaning this week. But. It is hard to get motivated! I did make a list. And there are still a few hours left in the day to get some of it done. Lol. I think I do better when I have the structure of work. But - I am determined to take time off from that. Okay, I guess I should at least go clean my bathrooms... Sigh...

I will, Sera! It will be just me and the cat, but I firmly believe in staying home due to the virus, so I’m okay with it. I will likely Zoom with my sons.

That is great! Glad you got it.

Oh my goodness! Yes - I also did not think it was your drain! When you said you were in a first floor apartment, then... Gosh, I can’t remember how or where this happened. But I recall an incident where our bathtub backed up with sewage water. No one had used the bathtub. It ended up being a main sewage line blockage. Tree roots, or something like that. My then husband was experienced with digging out sewage lines (we also had old rental houses - and the lovely renters would park their trucks on the lawn, crushing the sewage lines...) Once when we were staying at a hotel for the holidays, my sister’s room on the first floor was flooded due to a blockage in the laundry drains on the floor above. I was on an upper floor. Also, my son had moved into a newly built apartment - in fact, they were still finishing up some of the floors when he moved in. He was on an upper floor. He told me his friends on the first floor ended up with a mess - because of a problem with the drain lines. So I have learned- 1. don’t stay or live on the first floor, if possible. 2. Instruct renters not to park trucks on the lawn. 3. Blockages happen. Hope all is better now!

Wishing you healing and strength!

So glad, Fudgie! I am so appreciative of all medical professionals! You need to be protected! Are you nervous for the shot, since it is new?

My dad’s birth year was 1918. He died over a year ago. Wish I could ask him if his parents had ever had issues. Or, wish I could have talked with my grandparents about it. My maternal grandfather lost his dad to a flu - not sure what year it happened, and now I’m curious...

Wow. Format has really changed since I was here last! it is very hard for me to read the forum from my phone (with my old eyes, haha!). But I suppose I’ll get used to it eventually... And I’m grateful Kamurj has kept this going! Anyhoo- I’m on winter break now, so that is nice. I had a pretty lazy day yesterday - just did some laundry and spoke with friends and napped. Health wise I seem to be doing well - my temperature has been normal this week, so that is great! I go in to see my doctor on the 30th next. My sister had her first chemo treatment on Friday. To complicate things it had snowed the day before (on the east coast) and she lives an hour away from her cancer center. But she made it there fine and she is doing okay so far. I have met with other family members via Zoom a few times lately - and that was fun! I actually saw cousins I hadn’t seen in a few years, so that was nice. I am still staying and working from home and have my groceries delivered (or I do no contact grocery pickup), and that is working well for me. So thankful for those shopping for me! Nothing else exciting to say - I am writing this at 2 am. I think my neighbor knocked on my door, but by the time I got up, she was gone. Or maybe I just dreamed it. Anyhow I’m (somewhat) awake now. It is pouring down rain all night! Maybe that means good snow up in the mountains. We will need a deep snow pack for our water this next summer. I’ll pop on again in a few days when I’m more awake and more coherent...

So, on the work front. I was popping in to a Zoom math class for our older students and the teacher was showing calculations on a whiteboard under her document camera. And her cat decided it was time to jump up there and nap on top of the calculations. It was funny, and broke the ice for those middle school students. Haha! Glad I got to see that fun. A few weeks ago I was in a meeting and had to pause for a bit, because my cat brought me a dead mouse in the middle of it! My exclamation— “Oh no!! Dead thing!! He brought me a dead thing! I’ll be right back!” Our Kindergarten teacher was doing a Zoom lesson on how to lace on a project, and her cat thought that was great fun! A little levity, brought to us from our beloved furry family members.

Update on my sister. She had her mastectomy and is recovering well. Her cancer seems to be pretty advanced, so they will be treating it aggressively. She starts chemo in a few weeks. While I’m on chemo pills, and I do have my share of side effects, I suspect hers will be more intense, because she will have the chemo infusions. She texted me a cheery text that they only found cancer in 7 out of 13 lymph nodes. Maybe she is trying to be upbeat. Or maybe she thinks that is a good thing. I’m not going to burst her bubble though. Hopefully the treatment works well.

I didn’t realize how long it has been since I updated here. I’m doing okay - just had a stretch of illness for a few weeks. It almost felt viral, but the only place I have gone in the past month was to hike through a park a few times. Outside. Yes, there were runners going by, and a few did not have masks on. Some stuck the face in their shirts as they ran by. Anyhow, I got sick somehow - runny nose, sneezing, fatigue, extreme indigestion, and then a few days later other abdominal symptoms hit. Temp got up to neatly 100, but not quite. I was so grateful when the holiday hit, because I was exhausted trying to work through it all. My younger son wanted to spend Thanksgiving with me but I know he goes to a gym. So I told him he would have to quarantine for 2 weeks first, and in the end, after we both thought about it - we decided that quarantine was really not possible for him, since he lives with his dad and gf. And they have farm workers come to the property to help, including my former sister in law who is there every day to help out with her elderly parents on the property too. So we decided not to have him come over. Well, in the end I was sick, and unable to eat. So it all worked out in the end. At least for him, haha! I didn’t cook anything and barely ate. I did have a lovely green salad with dried cranberries. And some sparkling cider. I did have a fun Zoom with a friend while we ate. That was nice. Anyhow, feeling a bit better now. I slept so much this weekend. Back to work today. Had some rice with butternut squash soup for dinner last night, and that seemed okay. Was able to eat a bit more today too. And temp seems normal today.

Emily’s mom only jogs indoors. DANCE

I have a different kind of position, not to go into too much detail. But it varies.

*part (autocorrect!) Yes, a bit morbid. But I would be thinking the same thing too! Just don’t remind her of that, haha! She doesn’t need to know what you are thinking... And you never know- she may live another 15 years!

Hope it goes well! Fingers crossed!